mikeszekely

Weirder than Roman Reigns as Akuma? Dastmalchian isn't the first face I'd think of when I think of Bison, but neither was Raul Julia. But when I think about it, I can picture Dastmalchian giving off the same sort of so-hammy-its-good vibes as Julia, so I'm open to seeing where he goes with it.

We're getting close to completing two Hasbro combiners now... I'm going to check out a local Target that might have Mixmaster tomorrow morning, and Entertainment Earth is shipping Fireflight and Skydive right now (as long as you order the entire wave of Deluxes, which means also getting Venin and Micronus Prime), so with luck I'll have Devastator and Superion complete in another week or so. That said, despite being made out of five or six guys, they don't seem all that big compared to the likes of the new Studio Series 86 Megatron or Optimus, who stand roughly waist high to them. One solution is to buy bigger combiners, but that can be a bit pricey. The other solution is to buy smaller versions of everyone else, something I've been doing relatively inexpensively with Dr. Wu's Extreme Warfare line. And I'm happy to say I got the latest set in, Leap and Pulse Gun. Leap is the inevitable remold of Dr. Wu's Bumblebee into Cliffmumper. That means most of the parts in red plastic are new, but all the black plastic parts and the engineering are carried over from Bee. As far as remolds go, he's alright. I mean, the face is a little off, and quite a bit of the black parts should actually be gray for cartoon accuracy (black is fine for toy accuracy). They went to the trouble of painting the bumper on his feet, too, though neither the toy nor the cartoon have a black bumper. Borrowing Bee's engineering means that, like the Hasbro toy, he's missing his spoiler on his chest. I don't want to judge Leap too harshly, though. I mean, black on the feet (though a grill, not a bumper), a lack of spoiler on the chest, and black limbs were all errors Hasbro made on their own official Earthrise figure, a figure that came first and was only later remolded to be Bumblebee. I feel like I can cut Leap some slack when he's like a quarter of the size. Leap even comes with an accessory: that bazooka he used one time in the entire G1 run. Wu figures come in pairs, and Leap's partner is Pulse Gun, aka Shockwave. As robots go, I think Pulse Guncame out a lot better, wiht a nice lilac-and-lavendar pairing and a pretty cartoon-accurate sculpt. He even comes with a pair of black rubber hoses. The main point of contention here vs Sunbow will, of course, be his backpack being a lighter color due to being made from the barrel instead of the butt of his gun mode. Again, though, this is something Hasbro/Takara has done twice themselves, with bough the Siege toy and the MP (though the MP had a more cartoon-accurate cover to put on it and use as a stand in gun mode), so it's pretty forgivable on a figure that slightly shorter than the gun-mode accessory that comes with SS86 Megatron. Leap's articulation is the same as Bumblebee's; ball joint head that can swivel and look straight up, ball-jointed shoulders that swivel and move 90 degrees laterally, hinged elbows that bend 90 degrees, no bicep, wrist, or waist articulation, ball-jointed hips that go over 90 forward and backward and nearly 90 laterally and provide limited thigh swivels, knees that bend 90 degrees, and feet that can tilt downward but not up and no pivots. The bazooka has tabs that kind of wrap around his forearm, with a tiny tab inside that fits into a little slot that would hold his arm in place in alt mode. Pulse Gun's head is on a hinged ball joint with basically no sideways tilt, but he can look downward a little and straight up. His shoulders are hinged ball joints, mostly for transformation; they swivel and move 90 degrees laterally on just the ball joint. His elbows are ball joints that bend 90 degrees and provide his bicep swivel. No wrist or waist articulation. His hips can go just under 90 degrees forward and backward and 90 degrees laterally on their ball joints, and he's got dedicated thigh swivels. His knees bend about 60 degrees, which is a little limited, but he's at least got 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Leap transforms exactly the same as Bee, which is to say his waist swings back and his knees bend the wrong way, his elbows bend the wrong way, then all the black parts get stuffed underneath while his backpack folds over his head. The wheels fold out of the backpack and the sides of the car fold out from his feet. Pulse Gun uses a method similar to other modern Shockwave toys; head head folds into the chest, the arms fold up over the head, then the backpack hinges up and covers his forearms to form the barrel. The outsides of the legs form the grip while the rest of the legs form the butt of the gun... well, mostly. On this tiny scale, there's still a pretty big gap between the legs, and it's partially filled with a flap from his back. Aside from, as I mentioned before, Cliffjumper never having a black bumper in either toy or cartoon, I don't have much to complain about here. It's a tiny, mostly Sunbow-accurate car. I say mostly because Dr. Wu went to the trouble of painting the lights, which seems nice, until you remember that not only where the lights not colored on the G1 toy/toon but that the Porsche 944 had pop-up headlights, so no silver needed on the hood (and on the bumper it should be an orange turn signal above a white marker light, btw). I'm nitpicking, though. My criticisms for Pulse Gun's alt mode are a bit stronger. As I said before, the legs have large gaps between them. This is because, rather than have the sides of the legs simply move down and forward to form the grip the legs spin 180 degrees, so the outsides of the legs have to fold down from the inside. So a panel in his back has to fold out, and it doesn't completely fill the gap, and what it does fill isn't the right color. It's an extra waist, because that flap could have been his scope, but instead the scope is missing. Then there's other things, like the visible ball joints, the visible sliders on the legs, the visible feet, and the fact that the grip doesn't actually lock in place. On the whole, Leap could be better but I feel like it's pretty easy to forgive his flaws at this scale. Likewise, Pulse Gun's alt mode is kind of half-finished, but the robot mode is super solid and, again, pretty forgiving at this scale. And this price! Even now with tarrifs to contend with, this two pack costs me about the same price as a single Hasbro Deluxe. So, once again, if you're looking for tiny Transformers for one reason or another this set's an easy recommend from me. Just be aware, this set comes in two versions. There's this one, with a pretty cartoon-accurate color scheme on Pulse Wave but black limbs on Leap. There's also a version that uses a slightly brighter red plastic and swaps the black parts with gray on Leap, but uses a much darker purple for Pulse Gun. I care more about Shockwave, hence the set I picked. It's really a shame that Wu couldn't have put the gray-limbed Leap with the Pulse Gun I wanted as "cartoon colors" and put the darker Pulse Gun with this Leap as "toy colors", but the Doctor really wants you to buy both sets.😒 There's also a third version that I have on the way, it uses the Galactic Man deco for Pulse Gun and swaps Leap with Wheel Hub, aka Hubcap.

If we're taking other Street Fighter media I'm just gonna tell yous to watch Street Fighter 2 V. It's the anime I wish the animated movie was.

BBTS is taking preorders at $225. They say that price includes the tarrif. EDIT: Didn't see that this discussion went to the next page and Hikuro already mentioned that.

Decided to Google some of these guys. Andrew Koji (Ryu) was, like I said, Storm Shadow in Snake Eyes. He was also in Bullet Train. Noah Centineo (Ken) was mostly in Disney Channel stuff, but he did play Atom Smasher in Black Adam. Callina Liang (Chun-Li) has been in almost nothing. Cody Rhodes (Guile) is, as @pengbuzznoted, a pro wrestler. He did have a small part in the CW show Arrow. Orville Peck (Vega) isn't an actor at all, but a country music singer who's made a gimmick out of wearing a mask. I think most of us know who 50 Cent (Balrog) is... the star of the hit action game 50 Cent: Bulletproof. Likewise, Jason Momoa (Blanka) is super famous thanks to his role as Conan in 2011's Conan the Barbarian. I think Street Fighter might be the Hollywood debut of Vidyut Jammawal (Dhalsim), but he's done plenty of Bollywood stuff where he does his own fight scenes. Olivier Richters (Zangief) has been in a couple movies you've heard of, including Marvel's Black Widow, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The King's Man, and Borderlands. The problem is he gets roles like "Huge Machine Shack Guard" and "Warehouse Guy." Hirooki Goto (E. Honda) is another pro wrestler, but mostly in New Japan Pro Wrestling, not the WWE or anything. He did have a part in a Kamen Rider movie, but looks like this is his Hollywood debut. I already told you guys that David Dastmalchian (M. Bison) was Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, but you may also know him as the Kurt, Scott Lang's hacker friend in Ant-Man, or as William Borden in Oppenheimer. He's done a number of voice roles in some DC animated films as well. Roman Reigns (Akuma) is yet another pro wrestler. His resume as an actor is pretty thin, but he did play one of the Rock's brothers in Hobbs and Shaw. Andrew Schulz (Dan) is a comedian. He's been in a few movies and TV shows, but literally nothing I've seen, so 🤷‍♂️ Eric Andre (Don Sauvage) is a case where I think most of us are more familiar with the actor than the character. Don Sauvage isn't a fighter, he's a ring announcer who plays a role in Zangief's story in Street Fighter V. Mel Jarnson (Cammy) hasn't been in much, but you might have seen her as Nitara in the Mortal Kombat reboot film. Rayna Vallandingham (Juli) is another young actress with a short resume, but she was in Cobra Kai, which isn't nothing. Side note, Cammy and Juli, but no Juni? Where's my other Bison doll? Alexander Volkanovski (Joe) is a mixed martial artist who's competed in a number of UFC events, but I don't know that he's acted before. Joe, if you were wondering, is a shirtless guy with red pants you fight in the original Street Fighter game, but AFAIK hasn't been in any games since. All-in-all, given the limited acting experience (but extensive martial arts/wrestling careers), I'm guessing that Ryu will be the primary protagonist, with maybe Ken and Chun-Li as secondary protagonists, Bison will be the primary antagonist, and pretty much everyone else will show up for a fight or two before being discarded by the plot.

Andrew Koji was Storm Shadow in the Snake Eyes movie, and he's in The Warriors on HBO. And David Dastmalchian was Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad. Roman Reigns is a pro wrestler, and apparently Orville Peck is a county music singer. Other than that, I don't really know either.

A little, but like Bruce Lee he's pretty defined, and a trained martial artist. I'm willing to give him a chance.

New Street Fighter reboot movie officially announced, along with cast pics. I'll be honest, I don't know who most of those people are. But they seem like reasonably good fits... for the most part. I could definitely see David Dastmalchian (one of the guys I do know!) doing his best Raul Julia as Bison. I'm not loving Roman Reigns as Akuma, though. And what the heck is going on with Orville Peck? My first thought was that his cast photo had him in costume, and for some reason they were changing Vega's mask to something more like Zorro. But I guess a mask and cowboy hat is Peck's normal public look? So it's meta having a guy who likes wearing a mask play the guy who likes wearing a mask?

I think I was always the wrong audience for the Transformers X G.I. Joe line. I mean, I love Transformers, but I wasn't really into G.I. Joe as a kid, so to me they were kinda of expensive, kibbly, cheap-feeling toys with fairly simple engineering that were too big to scale with my other Generations figures. And although I thought Soundwave turned out pretty decent, Megatron and Bumblebee were bad enough that when Kup was announced instead of a more beloved character I decided to pass. But then Amazon had to go and put him on sale (or is it clearance?), so... Well, my complaint about the size stands (kinda), and the head sculpt is somehow worse than the Studio Series toy. I'm not totally sure why he's green instead of blue, either, since the majority of those green robot parts are hidden in alt mode. Colors aside, though, the feet, thighs, arms, and head are definitely very Kup in sculpt, and he's give got his abs and belt. What's more, while he is a bit thick and he does have big chunks of tread hanging from his significant backpack, there's not a lot of obvious plastic-saving, cost-cutting hollow spots visible on his person. And, big backpack aside, he's seems a lot less kibbly than the previous three figures in the line. For accessories, Kup comes with a pair of missiles, a pair of guns, and two retro G.I. Joe figures. Sgt. Slaughter I know, he was everywhere when I was a kid. St. Slaughter comes with a stand and a baton (but what's the whip-like bit at the tip?). I think the other guy is Leatherneck, who comes with a stand, a rifle, and a backpack. Kup's articulation isn't too bad, acutally. His head's on a ball joint that allows him to swivel and provides a limited up/down/sideways tilt. A transformation hinge at the base of the stem gives him a ton more downward tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist (on a soft ratchet no less!). His hips swivel forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than that due to his backpack getting in the way, on a ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a ratchet. His toes can tilt downward (due to his transformation), and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Kup can hold the guns in either hand, though the round base looks a bit weird. The missiles store on rails on the inner edge of the tread kibble on his backpack. The guns can also store back there by plugging them into peg holes near the missile rails. You have to remove the accessories to get them out of the way, but you can fold open Kup's backpack to reveal a computer. The backpack only opens to 90 degrees, and the inside has a quartet of those little pegs for Joes' feet, so Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck can ride back there. The instructions for transforming Kup are a bit confusing, but once you know what you're doing it's pretty simple. Rotate the arms at the shoulders so he's pointing straight up, then fold the fists inward. Turn the biceps so that the fists are now pointing forward. Pull the front of his torso away, unclip his shoulders from his collar, and open the flap behind his head. Spin the head 180, lift the backpack a bit, then shift it so that the panel his head is on rotates and you can fold his head into the gap under the panel you opened. The backpack should line up with his torso so that the rivet sits into a notch near the tampoed star on either side. Fold the flap back down, and cover it with the second flap that rotated out with when the head folded in. Get the treads out of the way, and the arms should fold right through the gap and under his backpack. The tread kibble needs to rotate on the black armatures so that the armatures can swing forward and line the white fender up with the bit that you already made from his arms. If you did it right, tabs on the forearms will lock into the the inside of the tread. Fold open the little bits of kibble on his shins, then bend his knees forward the wrong way about 90 degrees. Push the lower leg so that it detaches from the knee and hinges around to the outside... the treads on his legs connect to the treads from his backpack, the bottom of his shins continue to form the fenders over the treads, but don't push everything together too tightly yet. Double-hinge the front of the treads up from the backs of his legs and into place. Open the two flaps next to his tummy grill, then spin his tummy 180 degrees. Use the hinges to push the front of the torso into place as the vehicle's nose, making sure to line up the tabs on the nose with the slots on the front of the fender. If you have everything lined up, the fenders will push in tight with those little kibble flaps filling int he gaps between the nose and the backpack. Again, not really into G.I. Joe, so I had to look this up... but this is the Tag Team Terminator, or Triple T. Apparently, this is Sgt. Slaughter's personal vehicle, and was originally the only way to get Sgt. Slaughter v2 in 1986 (though he had a v1 release that year and v2 would get a standalone release the following year). Hasbro did a really good job recreating the original Triple T toy... aside from a few extra seams and an Autobot badge, the only really noticeable differences are that you can't see through the gap between the treads and the fenders, and Kup's forearms are a little visible from the rear. Kup retains most of the functionality of the original Triple T as well... as near as I can tell, the only thing he's really missing is that you can't open the engine cover. But the missiles plug onto tabs on the treads, and the guns plug into ports on the sides of the seat where they can swivel, like the original toy. One Joe can sit in the seat, like the original toy, where he can hold the joystick, like the original toy. He's still go the foot pegs on the treads, like the original toy. In lieu of the engine, you can again open the rear to reveal the computer that was in Kup's backpack, and to give more Joes places to stand. One more gimmick the original toy didn't have is storage for Sgt. Slaughter's baton and Leatherneck's rifle and backpack. I said I wasn't the target audience for this line. Maybe Joe fans who just wanted cheaper vehicles weren't into the line, either... there was an Optimus planned for the line, but from what info I had it was supposed to be out late last year, and is very likely canceled. I think it's a shame, because I kind of get it, this line was less about being good Transformers and more about taking the original vehicles for the original 3.75" G.I. Joes and making them Transformers. For all my gripes about the robot modes, the alt modes were always good. And it's even more a shame, because they were apparently just starting to hit their stride. Kup is, easily, the best of the line. He doesn't just nail the alt mode, he's honestly a pretty dang good robot, too. I'd say this is the first one I'd genuinely recommend as a good Transformers toy.

Still waiting on Mixmaster, but I in the meantime I got Takara's Synergenex Rathalos Prime. Rathalos Prime is a remold of Kingdom Airazor, though as near as I can tell they only share the same arms, legs, and basic engineering. I'm not into the Monster Hunter games, but as near as I can tell from the new shoulder pads, the extra forearm armor, the new torso, the visor, and the large spike on Prime's head he's supposed to look like Optimus Prime wearing the Rathalos Armor set. From some angles, the wings even look like the skirts on the Rathalos Coil part of the set. From other angles, though, it looks like an Optimus head on a feminine body with a wyvern on his/her butt. And the wyvern makes him/her overly back heavy with the wing/skirt moved out of the way. Speaking of, you can see that there's a new panel on the side of the leg. It exists solely to open in robot mode to reveal a little more blue color, but honestly I think it looks less out of place if you leave it folded against the shin, where it looks slightly more like Rathalos Greaves. Rathalos Prime comes with the aforementioned forearm armor, a sword, a shield, and (because Prime just isn't complete without one) a Matrix. Prime's head is on a ball joint, and can look down a bit and tilt sideways slightly, but nothing really upward. Shoulders rotate and can move laterally 90 degrees if he/she's not wearing the forearm armor, otherwise it gets caught on his/her shoulder pads. Elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, and his/her waist swivels, but there's no wrist articulation. The front of his/her pelvis can hinge forward, giving him/her the clearance to move his/her hips about 60 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, but well over 90 degrees laterally. Thighs swivel, and knees bend nearly 180 degrees. The feet are on ball joints which allows them to swivel in addition to giving them some decent up/down tilt, but unfortunately the ankle pivot is pretty limited. At the most basic, the sword's handle can fit into either fist, and the shield has a 5mm peg that flips out to be held in the other fist. I'll note, though, that you can store the forearm armor on his/her thighs (which is where they go in alt mode anyway), freeing the ports on his/her forearms to plug the shield in there, either open or closed. You may have also noticed that there's a slot near the tip of the sword. You can open the shield up and plug it into that slot to create something more like an axe. As for the Matrix, cutouts on the handles allow it to plug into his/her fists. His/her chest doesn't open, though, so to store the Matrix you have to open up the backpack, where it stores in the base of the wyvern's neck. It can stay there in alt mode. Speaking of alt mode, the transformation is mostly the same as Airazor, with the added steps of closing the flaps on his/her shins and partsforming the forearm armor onto the thighs if you haven't done either of those things yet. Technically, you also have to bend the arms at the elbows so that the fists go up behind his/her scapula's instead of tucking into the waist, because the torso doesn't extend the same way, and the head only folds back 90 degrees instead of 180. But that's fine because you don't fold the alt head out of the chest, it's just part of the backpack, which double-hinges over his/her back and robot face. The sword and shield combine to form the end of the tail. To be fair, I think this is about the best you're going to get out a remold of a Deluxe-class Airazor. The head, back, and wings look pretty great! The tail is kind of short, though, and the robot torso and thighs all bunched up make for a rather plump-looking Rathalos, with little bird feet instead of the more muscular dragon legs you'd normally expect. Articulation's fairly limited, too. There's an up/down hinge at both the base of Rathalos' skull and neck, but no swivel. The jaws open. The wings are hinged at the base, immediately beside that first hinge, and a third time a little further out for bend and flapping, then there are rivets at the "thumb" spike that tuck the wings in. Just like Airazor, you can bend somewhat at the knee with an additional digitigrade joint, plus the ball joints in the feet for posing the legs, but the hips are locked in place. The tail, (which, again, stores the sword and shield) has no articulation at all. Like I said, it's probably about the best they could do with a remold of Airazor... but it also begs the question, why remold Airazor? Basara Prime and Shield-D Prime from the same line are brand new molds, why couldn't Rathalos? If they absolutely had to remold a figure, why not Legacy Evolution Megatron, which seems like a closer starting point? Rathalos Prime is kind of a mediocre Deluxe-class toy at a Leader-class price, which makes it a hard figure to recommend even if the alt mode is pretty cool. That said, in my head-canon Rathalos Prime is a female member of the same group of Convoy-types that include Lio Convoy and Big Convoy from the Beast Wars II/Neo era of the Japanese continuity.

Studio Series Voyager Alpha Trion incoming...

Depends on the price. I really don't need Kickback or Skywarp, but I'm sorely tempted to have a Shrapnel with solid purple arms and Bombshell with solid black arms and silver hips (after I swap those parts onto a purple-chested one).

I'm not exactly sure what wave this figure belongs to, as it was originally slated to be released nearly a year ago, then in April of this year, but it's just now finding it's way out after every other figure in the current wave of Studio Series figures (except Mixmaster😡). This figure is Deluxe-class Transformers One Elita-1. Near as I can tell, based on the concept art, the design if this toy is broadly accurate as long as you don't go nitpicking it too hard... but nitpicking too hard is kinda my thing. So, let me first say that the wheels in her calves are accurate, even if they don't shrink the way they do on her CGI model, and kudos to Hasbro for hiding the other wheel... mostly. Things kinda start breaking down in the torso. The rear wheel is kind of folded up comprises the bulk of her torso... the animation-accurate chest and tummy is kind of just a flap tabbed loosely into that wheel. From the back it's covered by a fairly prodigious backpack that's basically the entire top of her alt mode folded up. Her forearms are also suffering from having the screen-accurate bits molded onto the insides of large alt mode panels that extend beyond her hands and elbows. As far as accessories go, she has the rifle she used in the movie, which is similar too but not exactly the same mold as the one that came with Bumblebee. She also comes with a miner jetpack. Elita's articulation isn't bad, but it's not my favorite. Her head is a hinged ball joint with decent up/down/sideways tilt, but it's a tad on the loose side. Shoulders are also ball joints that swivel but only move laterally about 60 degrees. She lacks dedicated bicep swivels, but her elbows are more ball joints that provide a swivel in addition to 90 degrees of bend. No wrists, but her waist swivels. Her hips are *sigh* even more ball joints, that can go forward and backward about 90 degrees (as long as you move them outward slightly), but only about 75 degrees laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees are double-jointed and good for nearly 180 degrees of bend. Her ankles are more ball joints, and though they provide some up/down tilt they sadly do not provide much in the way of pivot. Her rifle can plug into either hand via the usual 5mm handle. Weirdly, the handle is hinged, though it doesn't actually need to be. As for her jet pack, there are two tabs (marked in pink) that fit into slots on her back pack. But you'll note that those aren't the only tabs. The wider-set tabs (marked in red) fit into Pax/Optimus' backpack. The unmarked horizontal tab at the bottom fits into Megatron's backpack, and the same tabs that Elita uses also fit into Bumblebee's backpack. Alas, there's no way to plug the jet pack into Sentinel Prime or Starscream, but they're already flyers so I guess that's fine. Elita's transformation has some neat tricks, but I think it's ultimately undercut by her Deluxe-class budget. Her head, chest, and tummy fold forward, revealing the wheels inside. Those wheels are folded in half, and they have to unfold and shift slightly. The outsides of her biceps spin around, and that's about all that's needed there. Her backpack opens and then several panels inside just keep unfolding. Her shins open and her knee spikes tuck inside. Her ankle wheels and feet tab together, then her feet shift up toward her knees, while here knees use the double joints to set the upper joint into a space behind the lower one. Tabs in her forearms near her hands lock into her thighs, while the open shin flaps fit into slots on the outside edges of her arms. Then you close it all up by plugging her backpack flaps into tabs on the backs of her arms and thighs to solidify the top. As with Starscream, be prepared for parts to just come off. For me, both her heels came off, the hinge connecting her neck to her chest came off, and her entire chest came off at one point or another as they're just friction clipped on. Inconsistencies in tightness or looseness of her ball joints have also caused me to pop an arm off at the shoulder once. The impression I get is that this toy isn't exactly inaccurate, but it's too wide. The open shins should be tighter against the body of the vehicle and wrap underneath, while forearm kibble should wrap up and over the rear wheels. You can also sort of see her head and feet just chilling under the vehicle. Again, I get the sense that this was just the best they could do managing her robot mass with a Deluxe-class budget. The spirit of just barely doing what it needs to do but could be way better continues to her alt mode accessory storage. The jet back uses a 5mm port you might have noticed to plug into a peg dangling off the back of the vehicle. As for the gun, one side has a tab, and you can plug it into the 5mm port on either side of the vehicle (in what was her shoulders). But, the shin panels stick out so far, and the barrel of the rifle is so long, that the rifle can't actually point forward while doing so. Instead, you have to have it pointing backward, which just looks awkward to me. Compared to the Generations/SS86 toys, it seems like Hasbro likes to take shortcuts on Studio Series figures. For the most part I've liked the Transformers One figures better than the Rise of the Beasts toys, at least, and based on Prime, Bee, and Sentinel I've felt pretty comfortable saying that the Studio Series figures are at least better than the mainline TFOne toys. That said, I think Elita-1 is probably my least-favorite of the TFOne Studio Series figures- not really bad, but clearly compromised due to budgets. Pick her up if you've already got Prime, Bee, and Megatron and want to complete at least those four, but if you're not into the TFone figures Elita is definitely no the one to start with.

Nah, I bought it.

You know, it's kinda weird, but I loved Bruticus, and when Streetwise, First Aid, and Groove came out I thought they were all better than even the Combaticons. But I wasn't a fan of the fact that I had to go back and consult the instructions on Hot Spot; he just wasn't intuitive enough to go on memory alone, and Blades was kinda weak. So by the time I was finished I was less in love and more like, "I'm glad that's done." But Defensor's never been my favorite combiner. I'm a lot more excited for their Devastator, which looks like it's going to have some pretty crazy articulation. @M'Kyuunwill be glad to know they don't just have ankle pivots, looks like they've got at least 45 degrees of upward ankle tilt. And they both have way beyond 90 degrees of knee bend; Scrapper's pulling a full 180! Lest anyone thing I only care about the combined mode, though, here's the unpainted prototypes in bot mode. Of course I'll want to see them painted, but Scrapper's looking at least as good as the competition to my eye. As for alt modes... ...that also works for me. I dare say that Scrapper's looking much better than Fans Toys, and while there's some details I like on XTB's I think I prefer MMC's. Really looking forward to these.